Burning Grass and Crimson Clouds
by GeishaKitten
Summary: What if Akatsuki had rescued Karin from her burning village before Orochimaru and Sasuke had?  How might her life have been different?  R&R
1. Prologue

**AN**: This is the first new story from me in ages. Anyways its AU-esque and basically involves just what might have happened to Karin if Akatsuki had gotten to her before Orochimaru did. I was interested in exploring her character from other non-Sasuke-centric angles, though he will be a part of this story as well. I haven't read any of the Naruto manga in months because I'm a busy lady now, so forgive any factual errors that are bound to permeate XD

PROLOGUE...

"Well, what do we have here?" Karin opened her eyes wide, at the same time shutting her legs reflexively, shielding herself from the cold and lascivious nature of the chakra which she now found herself unwillingly in contact with. The eyes which met hers were a deceptively tranquil-looking shade of blue-green, but the symbol on the headband resting above those eyes, though slashed in apparent rebellion, sent her hand straight to her mouth, utterly panicked.

Iwagakure. It was rouge Iwagakure shinobi who had butchered her village just hours before. She had managed to escape thanks to her unique sensory abilities, but the images which met her innocent virgin eyes upon her re-arrival would never truly dissappear form her consciousness.

Severed limbs. The bodies of dead children with their arms flung akimbo and stiff as scarecrows. The hordes of vultures that circled what had once been homes, but now were burning shells. The unbearable scent of burning grass, that same lush grass that had given her village of Kusagakure it's name. All of these things had left her vomiting and then fainting, wondering whether her attempt at escaping had been worth it after all.

She had been sure that at least one person would be left alive and awaiting her return, but there had been nobody. Now she had opened her eyes to an enemy back for more carnage, it seemed. She tried to scoot away on her hands and knees but was pushed brutally to the dirt, which embedded itself onto the wet streaks that had been left on her face by her tears. Her captor held her down and brought his face down close to hers.

"You might not be so mad at me when this is over, un." She whimpered pitifully in reply.

"Don't worry, unlike those unfortunate ladies over there,"he whispered while cocking his face in the direction of the charred remains of what had once been beautiful young girls like herself,"you'll still be alive when I'm through with you."

He brought his lips to her throat and was attempting to pull her pants down but she was kicking about with all of her strength. Part of her wondered if it was even worth it to struggle in such a manner. I deserve to be treated this way for abandoning my village, she thought as her eyes scrunched closed.

Rouge fingers and lips continued to traverse her body, giving her the unsetling sensation that a worm, slick with mud, was burrowing beneath her skin. She prepared to black out if she needed to, to just allow herself to float away, but as she began to discern the odd chakra of yet another robed figure approaching; her blonde would-be ravisher was sent flying.

"Ouch, damn it, what in the hell was that for? Couldn't you see that I was busy, Tobi?"

Karin cautiously sat up to see that her attacker was grabbing a comically masked figure by the throat; enraged. This could be my chance to get away, she thought, once again asking herself whether it was even worth it at this point. What was left in the world for her to go back to?

"You shouldn't treat a lady that way, sempai," he continued, unaware of her crawling away. "Besides, she must be strong to have survived all of this." He spun slowly as he spoke, as if to emphasize the reaking dung heap that Kusagakure had become overnight. "She might have killed you while you were in the height of passion, you kn..."

His words were interrupted by a punch to his masked face. Tobi simply readjusted his mask, apparently unhurt. "I didn't even realize that you liked girls so much, sempai? I was completely sure that you were ga..."

Yet another punch interrupted his words, but Karin was already up and running, not caring to hear the rest of their exchange. The blonde was creepy enough as it was, but his masked friend's chakra was a completely different level of creepy altogether, even if he did save her from being used in the worst way.

"Oh no you don't. You're not going anywhere, young lady."

How, Karin thought, how did he get in front of me so quickly? I never sensed a thing. A scream was rising out of her throat, as scratchy and painful as thorns climbing up out of her neck and up from her mouth. The gloved and masked shinobi then covered her mouth with his hand. Karin was surprised to feel gentleness rather than aggression in that touch.

"Come, let's get you out of here. Don't worry, I'll keep that perv away from you. I promise." Karin had no more strength left to fight and so she allowed herself to be carried in the arms of the stranger, the stranger whose chakra felt like that of a ghost, and for all that Karin knew, perhaps she was a ghost as well, and she was going to be dragged down to hell by this man with everyone else that she had once known and cared for. His skin was cold, so cold, and she felt feverishly warm in contrast; as though she were already burning. _Is the devil waiting for me?_

END of PROLOGUE...

**AN:**Read and review please! Even a bad review is better than no review!


	2. A Day in the Life of

**AN: **Finally got around to this chapter. Thanks so much for all your patience and for your reviews. I'm enjoying Deidara and Sasori beating up on Karin a little too much, I'm afraid...

CHAPTER ONE_

"Heh. You're pretty lucky that it was that airheaded fool Tobi that saved your skin on the day that we scouted your pathetic shell of a village. Cause I'll tell you this much."  
>Deidara bent down to where Karin sat with her knees to the cold floor, wringing water out of battle-worn Akatsuki cloaks. A jaded expression coloured her face as Deidara continued his rant.<br>"Because if it had been Sasori-danna, he would've speared you straight through the ground and then you would've been doubly screwed."

Karin rolled her eyes at her Akatsuki cohort's latest round of weak insults. She had only been a part of the notorious, shadowy organization for a little over a month now, and yet already she seemed to be becoming everyone's favorite verbal punching bag. Hence, the menial labour, or _orientation_ as Akatsuki's leader preferred to call it. Not that Karin had actually met him face-to-face. It could all be a sick joke that Akatsuki was playing for all she knew, but she trusted Konan, Akatsuki's lone female before Karin came along. It was she who had given her the run-down of her tasks and Karin hadn't sensed any malice or ill-will from the blue-haired beauty.  
>Karin stared at the heavy cloaks floating up from the crude and old fashioned wooden washing tub in order to avoid Deidara's proud smirk , transfixed by the stream of blood and dirt that lifted off of that ample fabric,tainting the water. Strange. She hadn't noticed any blood before. It must've blended in with those crimson clouds, she thought wistfully, her fingers fumbling and scrubbing away. How long would it take before she was the one in the bloodied cloak, running around trying to capture bijuu and failing half the time?<p>

"Are you listening to me, wench!"  
>Karin looked up at Deidara and as she did, her red hair fell over her face, creating a suitable frame for the fire in her eyes.<br>"No, I'm not listening to you, and I suggest that you back up right now, because you're fogging up my glasses."  
>Deidara gave a lecherous smile in response, making Karin regret her uncontrolled moment of sass just a little.<br>"Oh, I'm not going to back up. I'm going to get even closer than this. So you'd better throw off those pesky glasses of yours, and maybe a few other items of clothing as well, un."  
>Once it seemed apparent to Karin that she was indeed about to be groped (and perhaps even bitten by his creepy hand mouths), she hastily stood up, only to slip and fall into her washing pile with an ungraceful splash.<p>

Her whole body pulsed with raging heat in spite of the freezing cold water, and it was moments such as this which caused her to truly abhor having joined such a coterie full of men whose strength, cruelty, and even beauty were all far superior to her own. Among them, she was essentially a walking bulls-eye target with the conspicuous red hair to match.  
>However, Deidara seemed to be the most irritatingly vicious (not to mention the prettiest) of the bunch. If I reduce myself to begging on my hands and knees, Karin thought, then perhaps Sasori will lend me some sort of flesh-eating poison that I can coat Deidara's cloak in. That should shut all three of his mouths for good, and end his 'artistic' career to boot.<br>Karin was fully aware that having such a casual thought about killing a cohort was ironic proof that she was becoming more and more a member of Akatsuki with each passing day, and she wasn't quite sure how she should feel about that. The loss of her village had left her feeling raw and sensitive as though she had been burned alive and left with sores that still festered, but she felt as though her blood was hardening now; scabbing over.  
>In one quick, fluid motion she had jumped up from the slippery mess and grabbed Deidara by those cursed golden locks of his. Poison could wait another day.<p>

"Eh, eh, owww, you let go you little witch!"  
>The two of them were both sprawled on the soaking-wet tatami mat floor now, and water seemed to be everywhere, but satisfaction turned the corners of Karin's pouty little mouth into a wicked grin. She could be vicious too, even if she probably didn't look it at the moment with the folds of her wet shirt clinging close to her budding, yet still pathetically flat, chest.<p>

"What in heaven's name have you done to this place?"

Deidara and Karin both flinched and jumped away from each other at the sound of Sasori's sonorous, displeased voice.  
>"I paid good money for us to hide out in this place for awhile," Sasori hissed as he cast feral eyes on the pair of them, and for perhaps the hundredth time, Karin wondered how a human puppet could project such ferocious intensity. Deidara was used to it, however, and was never fazed for too long.<br>"Oh come on, danna, don't go giving me that Kakuzu-like money talk all of a sudden. Look at you, you could always just kill the owners of this place if they put up too big of a fuss. Besides, it was all her fault."  
>Deidara pointed a purple-painted fingernail at Karin, as though he were a spoiled child blaming some error on a sibling, and Sasori looked her up and down, clearly disgusted.<p>

"As if dealing with Deidara wasn't enough, now I've got to deal with a bitch who will be good for nothing but bringing more little bitches into this world one day."

"Heh, now you sound like Hidan. A potty mouth doesn't really suit you, un? Anyways," Deidara continued while wringing excess water out of his hair, "I don't think we really need to worry too much about Karin having little red-headed brats of her own one day."  
>Sasori started a little at hearing 'red-headed' being used in a negative manner, but Deidara ignored the reaction as he went on in his usual rude way. "I mean, just look at her!" He playfully linked arms with Sasori, to the latter's chagrin, and gave Karin his own version of Sasori's disdainful lookover. "Who in the world would want to bang that, if you get my drift."<p>

"Actually, Dei-sempai, you have tried! On multiple occassions if I'm remembering correctly."

"What? Tobi! Where the hell did you come from all of a sudden? Stop freaking popping out of nowhere all of the time." Deidara gave a nervous little chuckle as Sasori's eyes narrowed with suspicion. Tobi and Deidara's banter ceased as Deidara scrambled to come up with a suitable reply. "I, I was only playing around. Tobi's just too immature to tell the difference is all."

"You're clearly lying," Sasori hissed. "You're disgusting, Deidara, truly low-class and completely unworthy of the title of artist. The girl looks thirteen or fourteen tops, but I always knew that it was a bad idea for Akatsuki to start recruiting such immature children to begin with. You people sicken me."  
>Karin and Tobi's presence seemingly forgotten, Deidara pranced up to Sasori until they were nearly face- to -face.<p>

"Who said you needed to be a saint in order to qualify as an artist? If that were the case then you're even more unworthy than I am, and as for recruiting children, just look at how well the glorious Itachi has done." Deidara rolled his eyes ever so subtly at the word 'glorious,' making his feelings for the notorious Uchiha murderer clear.

"That may be the case, but neither you, and definitely not that thing over there," he said as he waved his hand in Karin's direction, "are anywhere near his level yet. So you'd better get to scrubbing this damn floor right now while I watch. The other two can get far, far away before their I strip their flesh from their sorry bodies and use their bones for new puppets."

"What! But she's the whole reason for this mess, and what about our robes, damnit!"

Karin gave a small bow (playing the innoccent, of course) in order to hide her grateful smile and exited the door with Tobi following like an obediant puppy-dog. She was glad for an escape from her daily toil and so she ran, not even caring that she was far ahead of Tobi as he still made her feel uneasy. Something about him was even more 'off' than with all the rest of the Akatsuki members whom she had come across, and she needed some time to think. Collapsing beneath the shade of a tree whose leaves were beginning to crunch and wither in spite of the unseasonable, early autumn heat which was already drying her wet garments; she rolled herself into a ball and reflected on the past few months.  
><em>How did I get to this point? What am I doing here?<em>

...One month ago...  
>Karin's eyes had seemed to be glued shut in spite of their dryness but she batted her eyelashes furiously in an attempt to completely wake herself up. When she finally managed to sit up with eyes open wide, she found that the most beautiful woman whom she had ever seen in her short life was staring back at her. She found that it was hard to breathe at a normal pace in the presence of such an exotic beauty.<br>Her hair was a soft and pleasing shade of blue that was so unlike Karin's harsh shade of red that she unconsciously grabbed a strand of her own hair and imagined what it would be like to be blessed with such a face.  
>"My name is Konan."<p>

"I...I am Karin," she stuttered in reply. The woman Konan simply averted her eyes from Karin's fascinated gaze as though she were unsettled.

"And your family name?

"Just Karin," she answered, shrugging.

"Karin, you're village will never produce another shinobi again."  
>Karin held her hand over her mouth, reality suddenly making her feel very sick, especially when coming out of the mouth of a living doll, but Konan continued in spite of Karin's obvious pain.<p>

"It's a cruel world when entire villages can be raided and purged at whim, but Akatsuki is out to change that world."

"Akatsuki?" _Dawn?_ Karin's vision seemed to be blurring now and nothing Konan said seemed to be making much sense. She wondered if she had been drugged, but she couldn't sense the presence of any foreign chemicals or anything of that sort in her body.

"You are already part of it whether you want to be or not. I'm sorry, but I am here to make it a little easier on you. You apparently have strong sensory abilities if you were able to avoid that rogue army which caught hundreds by surprise. We could use those abilities. It's better than dying, is it not?"

"Yes," Karin replied with some boldness this time. She had participated in the chuunin exams. Even if she had been a pathetic example of her village's lack of talent back then, kusagakure could live on in a spiritual sense if she managed to distinguish herself among warriors with such intimidating chakra surrounding them. Still, that sick feeling wouldn't quite go away. "This Akatsuki? Is what you are trying to achieve something wrong? Something evil?"

Konan smiled, but her smile didn't quite reach her eyes, causing her face to resemble a Noh mask. "You really are still a child after all, even with all that you've gone through." She pulled the thin sheet off of Karin's frail body, and Karin's hands flew towards her frame in an attempt to cover herself and keep away the chill that she felt run through her frail form.  
>"You will accompany a few of the duos which make up our organization for awhile in order to get oriented to the way we do things. You will do whatever is asked of you, and you will not cause trouble."<p>

"It seems that I don't have much of a choice, do I?" Karin felt as though the fight had already been beaten out of her. She had seen altogether too much death, and so she would be perfectly fine with begging at the feet of this woman if that was what she needed to do in order to survive. At the same time, she tried to stuff back the whisper which she could hear at the back of her mind. _Coward_, it whispered. _You'd let the whole world die as long as you could survive._ "I won't cause trouble!" she unintentionally shouted in an effort to quiet that voice.

"Good. I will inform our leader then. Don't expect to meet him personally anytime soon, not until we are sure just how long you'll last."

"Understood." Karin's small voice still couldn't beat back that loud, insistent whisper. She almost wondered if Konan herself could her it. She sensed no deceit or dishonesty from the woman. It was as if the she had stopped feeling long ago and truly was the porcelain figure that she appeared to be. Karin prayed that perhaps she could be like that as well one day.

...Present...  
>From beneath the spacious shade, Karin wrapped her arms around her knees, glad for the solace of being alone for once. She wondered when she'd actually have the chance to do something risky. Throwing herself into something dangerous could help to keep her from feeling like some cowardly maidservant just asking to be taken advantage of.<p>

As if in answer to her desires, she could suddenly feel the presence of a particularly lethal, yet almost comfortingly familiar, chakra approaching from some miles away, yet coming ever closer.

"Who, who is that?" She stood up and asked Tobi, who had caught up to her during her indulgent reminiscing.

"Ah, it seems that it's the glorious Itachi Uchiha here to see us for himself. I heard he'd be coming sometime this week."

"Uchiha?" The name tasted bitter on her lips, bringing back memories of girlish false hopes she had hoped were far behind her. "What is an Uchiha doing in Akatsuki?"

END OF CHAP 1

**AN:** Review please! I rushed this a bit, so suggesstions are very welcome as I'm still working out all the kinks in my head...


	3. That Face

**AN:**Slow and steady wins the race, doesn't it? I'm sorry for taking my sweet time on this...but without further ado...

(C)Masashi Kishimoto

CHAP 2-That Face

_Itachi Uchiha was sick. There was no doubt about it._

That was the first thing that Karin sensed from deep in her gut upon meeting him for the very first time. He was most certainly damaged, but physically so rather than mentally. She sensed a sharp mind working fast from within a rapidly weakening body, but in the same way one wouldn't want to touch a sick animal for fear of being mauled, Karin felt no desire to touch the Uchiha, in spite of his rare beauty which surpassed that of his brother's. Itachi had the kind of face which didn't immediately catch one's eye, but once you did find yourself staring, it was difficult to will your eyes away.

"You're taking her away already?" Deidara whined, cutting into Karin's intense focus on Itachi. He was clearly irritated at the prospect of having to lose his favorite new toy.

"Awwww. Sempai sounds like he's actually going to miss her," Tobi teased.

"Wha? Oh, hell no!" Deidara replied as he looked around for something hard enough and thick enough for him to throw at the masked troublemaker.

"Good riddance," Sasori interrupted. "Things will finally be a little more quiet around here from now on. Women cause so many unneccessary problems."

"You've got that right, but I happen to enjoy their kind of trouble most of the time," quipped Itachi's shockingly sharklike comapnion, Kisame.

Karin didn't like the way his eyes seemed to be boring holes into her, breaking her apart piece- by piece. Itachi, on the other hand, barely seemed to notice or acknowledge her presence and Karin was grateful for that.

The six of them were seated in the formal tatami-mat room of Sasori's "borrowed" house, with the exception of Itachi, who stood leaning against the wall near the sliding door with his arms folded; all the better for Karin to study him. She was grateful that he seemed more interested in staring at the ceiling than at her, as she was scared that he would be able to see into her thoughts as clearly as she could tell a truth from a lie by way of chakra fluctuation. A part of her wondered about the many ugly things those finely lashed, blank dark eyes had seen.

He had killed his own family...Sasuke's family...for sport? He had watched them die, he had watched their life drain away from them. Karin felt her stomach turn as she remembered the sight of the dead inhabitants of her village. She hadn't watched any of them die and she knew that she wouldn't have been able to handle it if she had.

She was beginning to fidget noticably, shifting her weight in order to keep her legs from going numb beneath her as she pictured the smiling face of the young boy who had saved her during the chunin exams, a face framed by dark hair just like the strange man who stood in the same room with her and who apparently was his brother. How had Sasuke even had the strength to smile at all?

"Since you're obviously too busy being stuck inside of your weak woman's brain, I'll take these as a little souvenir to remember you by." Deidara, who had creeped up behind her during her musing, yanked hard at her hair with one hand, causing her to squeal, and with his other hand he grabbed at her glasses and removed them.

_Damn..._

Without her glasses on, Karin felt as though she were staring out at the world from underwater. It made her feel irritated and vulnerable, although she remembered staring at both Sasuke and Konan for the first time through that watery haze. It had made them appear ghostly as well as beautiful, but she couldn't get distracted by memories like that now.

"You want something to remember me by? Then I'm about to frikkin give you something to remember me by, so take it!"

As she aimed her fist in the direction of Deidara's cute little nose, she felt a hand from behind her grab tight to her arm, holding it back, and she looked behind her, caught off gaurd.

"That will be enough, Karin, is it?"

_Damn_, Karin thought again as she turned to stare Itachi straight in the face. What an amazing voice; she had never heard her name spoken out loud like that, as though it were something exotic and beautiful rather than the common, run-of-the-mill name that she thought it was.

"That's right," she replied while trying to loosen Itachi's grip on her arm, but it was like pulling her arm out from under a fallen tree. His hands appeared so gentle, and yet so strong...

Karin tried her hardest to remember the many taijutsu moves she'd been forced to brush up on before entering the dreaded chuunin exams (not that they'd done her much good) as she attempted to break Itachi's iron grip on her right arm while also trying to aim at Deidara again with her left arm.

"Let me go so that I can give that blonde mudlicker a farewell present that he won't soon forget!"

Itachi grinned as he relaxed his hold, letting her limp, sore arm drop, and she was so puzzled by the unexpected sight that she allowed herself to forget about pummelling Deidara. She couldn't quite decide whether she found his smile drop-dead sexy or spine-chillingly horrifying.

"You remind me of someone." Itachi gave her a playful poke on the forehead as he headed towards the door, grabbing her glasses out of Deidara's hands on the way and receiving a dirty look from the green-eyed ex-rock ninja in return. While Deidara left to go sulk in his room by himself, Karin followed after Itachi while Sasori watched with barely concealed amusement.

"We'll be leaving now."

Karin was filled with an odd prickle of apprehension at leaving the hell she was familiar with for another of which she knew little about other than that Itachi and Kisame were both twisted and damaged to an extent that would make Sasori and Deidara appear like positively model citizens.

"Have fun Karin." Tobi waved, but it seemed like an oddly perverse little wave rather than a friendly one to Karin. Did she not have a single friend whom she could trust?

"Hey, what was that poke for? I'm not a little kid, you know, and give me back my glasses please!" Karin rubbed at the spot on her head which had been poked and grabbed at her shoes and her jacket, and hurriedly put them on.

"Forget about it. It was nothing." Itachi turned towards Kisame, who was right behind Karin. "Make this trip a little easier for us please, Kisame."

"But of course."

Kisame had his blue fingers round Karin's slim throat before she had anytime to react to the gleefully agressive nature of his chakra around her. _Help me_, she thought. _Somebody please help me_... but she realized how insane it was to think that anyone would care enough to save her, and so her watery haze became a black mist which she allowed herself to dissolve into.

LATER

When Karin awoke, she was lying on the ground staring at the stars, with Itachi and Kisame sitting near a small fire nearby.

"Can somebody please tell me why it was neccessary to treat me like this? Sedated like some sort of animal?"

"You wouldn't have shut up otherwise."

Karin ignored Kisame's chuckling, and her eyes went wide when she noticed that Itachi appeared to be wearing her glasses. _Hers! _How did they even fit him properly? The flames lit up his own smiling face, giving him a sort of otherworldly glow.

"Looking for something?"

Karin didn't like his leer, didn't like the fact that her vision was such an obvious weakness of hers. Was it a weakness for him as well?

"Give those back to me, please." She was starting to tear up, like a pathetic and infantile child, but she wasn't sure how else she should be around a pair of murderers.

"I happen to have taken a liking to these, but I'll give them back to you if you can help me and Kisame with an errand."

"That's what I'm here for, isn't it?" She shrugged.

"We're pretty close to fire country right now. Can you feel it?"

Karin nodded. She could vaguely feel a sort of fullness, a feeling of life, of a mass of people like she had felt before the sack of her village. This however, was a stationary mass for the most part, and they were at a safe distance away. Karin was grateful to spot a mug of what appeared to be warm water or perhaps tea nearby her, and she took a long, slow sip in order to wake herself up more fully so that she could take in whatever Itachi had to say to her.

"In short, we're going to allow you to be discovered lying defenseless, wounded, traumatized, and near-naked perhaps; similar to how you were when Deidara and Tobi discovered you, only a little more dramatic." Karin began to cough, spitting out most of the tea all over herself in the process.

_What?_

Near naked? What kind of debauched devils had she gotten herself mixed up with? She was beginning to miss the days of being Sasori's kitchen slave and Deidara's verbal sparring partner already, and she said as much.

"Nothing that Sasori made me do ever involved me being 'defenseless,'" she shouted, attempting to sound much bolder than she truly felt.

"You got lucky then." Kisame cut in with a snicker and a flash of shuriken sharp teeth.

"He's right." Itachi twirled her glasses around his fingers, and for a second or two Karin worried that he was going to toss them into the hungry flames.

"Besides, your time with those two was meant to teach you how to follow orders without questioning them," he continued.

_Oh, so that's why I got stuck washing dirty dishes one day and then blood-soaked cloaks the next, _Karin thought sarcastically, but she was losing the energy to argue back. The night wind was biting at her skin and so she pulled her cloak tighter around her to cover the trail of goosebumps that was forming along her arms and legs.

"Okay, I get you. So what's the goal here then?"

"Pay attention," Itachi scolded. "When the locals find you and see that you're a shinobi from this...", Itachi handed Karin her old kusagakure headband, still so shiny and unscratched through the middle, as she hadn't yet proved herself fully useful to Akatsuki. "...they'll freak out regardless of whether you're inhured or unconscious or not, and they'll contact Konoha to send someone to come and deal with you. Don't look so frightened, Karin, Konoha is a village full of bleeding hearts, too gentle for it's own good really."

_Then how the hell did you turn out like you did?_, Karin wondered as she listened.

"If you play the role of weak and wounded female refugee well enough, you'll get plenty of attention and you need to do from there is find out the whereabouts of the nine-tails jinchhriki. It's quite simple really."

Karin's heart was beginning to pound like the running footseps of a guilty criminal.

_I'll get to stay in Konoha and see Sasuke again, _she thought, fantasizing against all reason, of his strong arms wrapped around her vulnerable and barely-clothed ( Itachi had mentioned that, hadn't he?) body.

She couldn't seem to stop a roseate blush from staining the whole of her face, a blush that she was sure would come across as yet another sign of fear to the bloodthirsty pair in front of her. Reality popped the bubble of her teenaged mromance fantasy and emboldened her tounge yet again.

"This is a pretty ridiculous idea if you ask me." Karin planted one hand on her hip and continued her rant in that defiant pose, grateful that the deep black of the night blurred Itachi's facial expressions (if he even made any), or else she might've lost the courage to speak to him in such a manner. "Despite what happened to me and my village, I still haver some pride left, I'll have you know. I'm not going to lie down and cry in the dirt like some poor idiot ever again. Not for anyone." Karin let her voice grow louder still.

"You really are just like him." Itachi's eyes seemed to go wide momentarily and Karin wondered just who he could be talking about.

"However, I was worried that you'd be difficult. I really regret what I'm going to have to resort to.

Karin felt her insides turn with anxiety as she realized that he wasn't just talking, he truly did regret whatever he was about to do. She could feel it.

What could be that horrible?

"Kisame, hold her down please."

"No!" Karin screamed as Kisame had both her arms pinned behind her back; she tried to twist and flail her body to no avail, she was only dragging them both to the ground.

She could almost taste the dirt as Kisame brought her face down hard onto the grass in order to stun her a bit and keep her still. Itachi lifted her face up so that her eyes met his and she was forced to view the hellfire crimson of his sharingan.

"You feel exactly the way that you did when your village was razed to the ground, don't you," he whispered in her ear. She nodded in reply as she felt her eyes go wet and her face felt so cold, so so cold.

"That's exactly the point," he answered with a satisfied grin.

END OF CHAP.

**AN:**Thanks for all the reviews so far, keep em coming, XD

and no...this will not be an Itachi/Karin story, she 's just the type of girl who knows a pretty face when she sees one, I think...

till next time!


	4. Distraction

**AN:** The holidays were long and busy, but I'm back. This is my first time ever writing from Sakura's POV, it was pretty interesting. Sorry for the typos in the last chapter, I double-checked this time *blush*

(C)Masashi Kishimoto

CHAP 4.-Distraction

Like most adolescents, Haruno Sakura often found herself sliding into pessimism, wondering why nothing ever seemed to go her way. When would it be her time, her moment?

She thought these things from the safety of her bed and it's fluffed up pillows as she stared at a photo of her two best friends, both of them much too far away from her. Nonetheless, she felt the need to hang her pink head in shame over her self-absorbtion when she thought of the shivering, scarlett-haired girl that the medics had brought into the village early that morning, the one that just wouldn't stop crying.

Her eyes had appeared glazed over, with a far-away look as though she were in another world of her own creation where nobody else could ever reach her; a horrible world. Sakura shuddered, sitting up and wrapping her arms round her knees as she thought more deeply about it. The girl had taken little notice of anyone or anything around her, and nothing that any of the medics did seemed to succeed in snapping her out of her daze. Sakura wasn't any help either and felt shamed by the fact that she'd done little other than take in her dirt-encrusted, ripped clothing and disheveled hair with wide, saucer eyes.

What had happened to her? Sakura rubbed her red-rimmed eyes and tried to put it out of her mind. Ever since Sasuke and Naruto had both left the village, leaving her as the sole member of team seven left in Konoha, she had been doing her best to try and prove herself on her own, and her sleep had suffered as a result.

Her eyes wandered once again to the framed old image that she kept near to her bed of team seven when it was whole and not fractured and spread out as it now was. She'd grown up so much since that time.

Things had seemed so much simpler back then, so black and white. This girl was like a shade of gray to Sakura. She didn't know quite how to react to her.

THE FOLLOWING MORNING

Despite her lack of a full night's sleep, Sakura had made her way through Konoha's winding, mazelike streets and alleys in record time. Hell, she had even run over Shikamaru, sending the poor guy sprawling, and hadn't even stopped to apologize. She was singleminded in her quest to be one of the first to arrive at the hospital that morning. She hadn't even been tempted to stop and converse with anyone else whom she ran into that foggy dawn.

More than anything else at that moment, Sakura simply had to know juat what had happened to the mysteriously unconscious and fascinatingly foreign red-haired girl. Had she died overnight? Or was she already awake and telling what was sure to be a heart-stoppingly dramatic tale? Sakura only knew one thing for sure. This girl was just the sort of distraction that she needed.

...

"How's she doing?"

There was no need for Sakura to specify who "she" was.

Shizune frowned and stayed silent for a moment. Sakura's fingernails dug deep down into her palms as she clenched her fists, irritated. Was she going to get an answer or what? Shizune sighed, glancing over to the room down the hall where the girl lay resting on a hospital bed, her vital signs closely monitered.

"She's stable. In a state of mild shock, but nothing too serious. She should recover well-enough within the next few hours."

"That's good to hear." Sakura relaxed now, nodding at the dark-haired fellow kunoichi standing before her and giving her a look both grateful and expectant.

Shizune frowned. "You're waiting to hear if we've found out any interesting information regarding her background, aren't you?"

"That thought might've briefly crossed my mind," Sakura replied, her cheeks reddening a little.

Shizune sighed, the puff of air stretching out for what seemed like an exaggerated amount of time to Sakura, before she reached into her pocket and pulled out something long, wrinkled and dirt-encrusted. It took a minute for Sakura to realize that the object was a ninja headband like the one she and pretty much everyone she knew in her world wore.

The image brought to mind the blue headband that Sasuke left behind when he went away, the one which she knew Naruto kept in his room. Sakura placed her fingers around the headband with some hesitation, taking it from Shizune's loose grasp and turning it over in her own hands, examining it. The metal portion of the headband, while dusty, still shone with a wavy symbol which she felt she vaguely recognized, from the chuunin exams perhaps. Those days seemed like a century ago to Sakura and only brought back more unbidden memories of team seven as it once was.

Would she ever be able to find a distraction that wouldn't remind her of what she had lost? She attempted to snap out of it, throwing Shizune a questioning glance as she handed back the headband.

"Kusagakure." Shizune spoke that word flatly, but with an uncomfortable look clouding her dark eyes, and an almost unconscious shudder. "Nobody was left alive there, and how did she end up so close to us? I just don't understand it. She's better wake up soon and explain all of this. I just don't like it. Really I don't." Shizune shook her head before bringing her fingers to her temples and rubbing them as though she were suffering from a particularly nasty headache.

"Well I definitely agree with you about wanting to hear her speak for herself, but you sorta lost me there." Sakura giggled, nervous and a little cross as well. She hated when she didn't know something that was suppossed to be important.

"I'm going to go check up on her now," Shizune answered, her voice rising in pitch. "I'll explain it to you on the way there, if you'll join me. You underestimate yourself as a medic, you know, but perhaps you'll know how best to handle this."

Together the two young women walked the well-lit hallway to the most recently occupied hospital room.

...

"Oh my god! Don't do that, please! Please stay still."

Karin was trying to put herself together as best as she could, but it was hard to when she had just fallen face down on the cold floor, wrapped in a cruel cocoon of blankets with nothing seemingly underneath.

The harsh chemical smell of that floor helped a little to bring her out of Itachi's horrifying genjutsu based world and back into the real world, where two young women were staring down at her, their pity and a little bit of fear seeping into Karin's consciousness and leaving a bitter taste in her mouth as she attempted to calm down and figure out just what was going on. The elder of the two women bent down at Karin's level, placing a hand on her shoulder. Karin pulled away, unused to being touched by random strangers in an unhostile way, but the woman didn't seem to take offense.

"You're safe now. In Konoha. Nobody is going to hurt you here."

In Konoha. Karin shot up instantly, clutching the blanket against herself. She felt an urge to cover herself completely as she was unaware of the abilities of the two women. Can they see through my intentions? She wondered as she remembered her one mission, her sole reason for being there in the first place. Discover the whereabouts of the nine-tails host. Itachi would take care of the rest.

Her eyes flitted from the pretty pink head of the girl standing a shy distance away, and back to the shining coal black hair of the more mature-looking woman in front of her. They certainly didn't look too intimidating, though Karin could sense a quiet sort of strength emanating from them. What was it that Itachi had said about Konoha? That it was a village of bleeding hearts?

"Sit back down on the bed now," the older woman said, helping her back up. "Are you ready to tell us anything about what happened?"

Flashbacks from her hours long genjutsu induced nightmare about kusagakure hit her with a hammerlike force, making her feel sick. She could feel the sob threatening to climb up out of her throat, along with whatever was left in her stomach. She covered her mouth and near-collapsed back onto the crisp white sheets on the bed.

"Don't worry about it," the woman replied, her voice more understanding now. "We won't push you till you're ready."

...

Earlier that morning, Tobi had stopped by to check up on Itachi. It was to be expected, of course, but still it didn't sit well with Itachi. He glared daggers out his black eyes, standing deathly still as he faced Tobi.

"Oh, don't give me that look, Itachi-san. Aren't you growing a little too old for that?"

Itachi sighed, looking back past his shoulder to see if Kisame was back from looking for poor defenseless little animals to gut, kill, and cook for an afternoon snack, but there was not the slightest rustle in the trees to signal his arrival. It looked like Itachi woukd have to deal with Tobi alone, so he might as well get straight to the point.

"Why did you recruit that girl? She's just a child. You should have let her just run away when you found her."

Tobi giggled.

"It bothered you that much to hurt a girl? Truly I'm shocked, Itachi. It's not like you've never killed one before. "

Itachi let the needlessly harsh comment pass, refusing to let it distract him. Saying such things with a straight face (or at least Itachi assumed that it was a straight face beneath the mask) was simply Tobi's way.

"We don't need her," Itachi answered forcefully. "She should be off living a normal girl's life. She'll only get in the way."

Tobi patted Itachi on the shoulder. "There's no such thing as a normal life for her anymore. If we let her go, she'll only get killed trying to take revenge for the destruction of her village. She'd be a lot like your brother don't you think?"

Itachi had no answer for that. Karin's resemblance, both physically and behaviorally, to his brother did disturb him enough that he wanted her far, far away from Akatsuki. She was like a female, red-haired Sasuke, with the tragic loss of family to boot. However, Itachi didn't think that she had the mental fortitude to go off avenging the death of an entire village, and she certainly wasn't physically strong enough. He recalled how embarrassingly easy it was to hold her down.

"What becomes of her is none of our business then."

"Oh, but it is."

Itachi imagined that Tobi must be smiling beneath his mask.

"You're getting sicker and sicker everyday, aren't you Itachi? You're being eaten alive from the inside. I've seen you coughing up blood."

"What does that have to do with anything?," Itachi asked, frustration threatening to raise his voice.

"She's a well of chakra, Itachi. Think of her as a last resort to save your life, if need be. You may need her in your battle with your brother. The rest of Akatsuki may use her as well, with limits of course."

_What_? "Explain yourself. What do you mean 'use her'?"

Tobi simply vanished into a cloud thin air, a technique which greatly annoyed Itachi at that particular moment.

"What the hell was that about?," Kisame asked, as he finally returned and walked up towards Itachi from behind.

"I don't know," Itachi answered coolly. "But I don't like it."

END OF CHAP. REVIEW...

**AN: **I know that a few of you weren't crazy about the last chapter, so if you don't like this one please tell me how I can do better...


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